Sunshine Stories
by Queen.of.Tea
Summary: A collection of NaruHina ficlets. TIMESKIP SPOILER WARNING. Currently on : Three Stories : Some drabbles.
1. Story One : Mimei

**Sunshine Stories**

_Basically, all my NaruHina oneshots, twoshots, and drabbles will go in here. Because NaruHina is dorky love, and there's very little decent stuff out there. While I do love reviews, I don't mind as long as you read and enjoy it. There may be background pairings and an assortment of ratings, but nothing NC-17 because hey, I'm not even that old yet._

**- - - - -** _First Sunshine Story_** - - - -**

_Title_ : Mimei - Early Morning

_Length_ : Long.

_Rating_ : PG. Fight scene and a hug. A SEXY hug.

- - - - -

"Hey Hinata!"

It's never "Hello, Hinata," or "How are you, Hinata?" or even "Good morning, Hinata" with a nod like Neji always does. It's always "Hey!" and it's always accompanied by a cheery smile and a wave, and he looks so _enthusiastic_ that she always smiles back. And then she blushes, because his exuberance makes her feel self-conscious.

He hurries to catch up to her. It's six o'clock in the morning - her time. It's the time when she always goes to practice, so she can be by herself and not have to worry about other people and how much better they are than her. That's where she's going right now, admiring the solitude of the streets. She's not quite sure what Naruto's doing here, though. He seems the type to sleep in and then fall out of bed cursing when the alarm clock rings, followed by a series of amusing mishaps. Weird.

Then again, she has to admit that he's changed since he came back. Taller, for one. More serious. And the memory of Sasuke always in his eyes.

"Good morning, Naruto-kun," she murmurs. He's beside her now. Too close. But she's not a little girl any more, and she manages to fight back the blush.

"Neji-kun said you always trained by yourself, so I thought I'd come along. It sucks to have to train alone, doesn't it? I did a lot of it while I was with Jiraiya. He's so inattentive, haha..." She smiles softly, and Naruto realizes that he's babbling.

"Oh! Sorry. I, uh, talk too much. It's all Sakura-chan's fault. She rubs off on me." He ruffles the back of his hair. Why does he do that? She wonders if it itches, or if it's just habit.

"I don't mind," she says.

"Really? You're so quiet, Hinata!"

"Is... is that bad?" Aw, no. She thought she'd lost the stammer. As soon as _he_ comes around it returns in full force. Funny. She thought she was over this.

"No! It's cute."

"...You're not making fun of me?" She doesn't meet his eyes.

"What? I would never be that mean, Hinata-chan!"

She smiles. She believes him. "I know." They're heading under the gate, and her practice field is just up ahead. There's bits of broken wood lying around from Lee's last assault. She steps over them and heads to the dummies. Naruto stops a few metres back, and she's unsure of what to do. Normally she works on her taijutsu and byakugan, but it would be nice to have flesh to connect with instead of oak that splinters and really, really hurts.

But she doesn't want to touch him, because she'd faint.

"Hinata!"

She turns around. He's got a confident half-smile on his face, and her heart skips a beat because -

"Fight me."

"W-what!"

He nods, and his voice has a 'duh' edge to it. "I want to see how you've grown while I was away. You don't fight very much, so I don't really know you that well."

"Um, Naruto-kun..."

"Hn?"

She pulls her jacket up to her face, despairing. Oh _no_. Nonono. How can she? Then she steels herself, because she needs to be confident - she's learned that much from him - and she meets his eyes, brilliant blue and vaguely mischevious.

"Okay."

She pulls her jacket off, since she'd sweat right through it anyway, and ties it around her waist. Underneath, her t-shirt is plain black. There's no point in wearing fishnet during training. Hinata assumes the stance, and waits.

He grins, and forms a handseal (was he always that fast?). There's the usual 'poof' and explosion of white dust, and there's four of him. She activates the byakugan, wincing as she feels the veins around her eyes stretch.

The Narutos leap into the air, forming more handseals. She has a mild panic attack before realizing that she is in no danger if he attempts a close-range attack; her Shugohakke would crush him, and he knows it. She needs to think quickly.

He manages to dodge the shuriken she sends to slow his movement. Luckily, they accomplish their purpose: he's been knocked out of alignment with himself. She rushes forewards, trying to get into close-range so she can land some hits. She can feel her chakra automatically clumping near her foreward fist, and her heart is thumping. _Confidence..._

Her first smash is blocked by an arm, but the force is enough to evaporate the bunshin. The other Narutos are suprised; they hadn't expected her to take it so seriously. She smiles to herself and kicks out at another, who dodges - it wasn't a real stroke, anyway - and she spins around, feeling silly.

Perhaps a mild Juuken would help; at least she'd be able to remove the clones. She doesn't quite like the way one of the Narutos is holding his fist, though; using her byakugan, she can see chakra beginning to accumulate...

Her palm smashes his chin before she's pulled off and tossed in the air. She flips and dodges the kunai (_stupid Naruto_, she thinks fondly, _I have eyes in the back of my head_) and grabs it and lobs it back. It misses, of course, but she's back on the ground and running behind the offending clone.

The other one thankfully succumbed to the Juuken; there's only three Narutos left to deal with, and she can feel the fight now. Wait. Three. There's two in front of her. One of those two is accumulating chakra in its palm again, and the third is -

She squeals as a foot connects with her back and she stumbles, twisting and raising her arm. The clone grabs it and yanks her forewards. _Please! _she thinks, then realizes that it won't do any good.

She pulls herself foreward and punches the clone in the face. It yells - "OW!" - and blood spurts from its nose. For a second she's afraid it's Naruto, but it evaporates and she breathes out.

"Come _on_, Hinata," he says from behind her. She doesn't need to turn around; she can see both of him perfectly fine. "I'm not even sweating."

_Not even sweating,_ she thinks. _You say that, but you're using a lot of chakra to mantain your clones. You can't keep it up forever. But neither can I_.

She smiles sweetly and rushes forewards, preparing to use her Hakke Kachuushou (Eight Trigrams Vortex Palm, her own specialty. She and Hanabi had worked on it for months. Hinata had achieved it first. She was rather proud of that). She manages to circle behind and catch one of the Narutos just as he's turning around. Her chakra keeps her hand locked to the target as the other one strikes. It's a weak move, but it's useful for opponents who won't stay still. Tactics, and all that fun stuff.

Naruto manages to stifle a rather rude word that she knows he didn't know before his absence and tries to grab her hand. A burst of chakra scorches it and the other clone manages to get a choke-hold around her neck. She kicks it in the groin. Wait. Two left. Either one of them is Naruto, or -

How could she have missed it? The real Naruto is hiding in a tree, where he probably knows she can see him. The choking clone evaporates, followed by the gurling one as she punches it where the kidneys would be. She blushes and stands, embarrased, her sweater lying abandoned on the ground a few feet away and probably filthy from all the running-around she's done. Mother will be very disappointed.

Naruto jumps down and walks over, picks it up.

"You must think I'm an idiot," she says. "I should have seen that. I'm sorry, Naruto-kun."

He laughs, but it's not malicious at all.

"I don't think that at all. If any of your attacks had hit me, I'd really have been hurt. Besides, you were holding back."

"Yeah." She knows she shouldn't have, that she won't grow, but blah blah blah. It's more embarrasing that she fell for such a childish trick. She's fifteen.

"It's okay. I was holding back too."

"Of course you were, Naruto-kun."

"Hey! Now you're making fun of me."

"No I'm not! I mean - er -"

He looks at her, affecting injury. That expression looks odd on him. Then he grins, and it's infectious, and she giggles. And then she's ashamed, because she doesn't giggle. And then chemical reactions happen in her brain and she runs and she hugs him.

Her sweat is cold on her shirt, but he's really warm and it's okay. She's trembling - with fright or with cold or with leftover adrenaline, she's not sure. Still nervous. Um. Uh...

"I'm glad you're back," she says. Her voice is perfectly level.

"Yeah."

She should really have tied her hair back, she thinks. She's pretty sure it's in both of their eyes. But he doesn't seem to mind, and he pushes his nose a little deeper into it. He's hugging her, and suddenly the world is a lot more complicated. She feels a little dizzy.

"Hinata?"

The sun rises.

She faints.

- - - - -

OMG SLEEP.


	2. Story Two : Tanpopo

**- - - - -** _Second Sunshine Story_** - - - - -**

_Title_ : Tanpopo - Dandelions

_Characters_ : Hinata, Sakura, Ino

_Length_ : 898 words.

_Rating_ : G. Your grandma wouldn't be shocked.

- - - - -

Sakura knew Hinata liked Naruto. It was so obvious that it was quite a testament to the boy's lack of observational skills. And of course, since Sakura knew, Ino knew. Which meant that most of Konoha probably knew about it now if they'd cared to find out.

"Hinata, if you like him so much, just tell him!" Sakura pestered during the month break before the chuunin exams resumed. The girls were sitting at the edge of the meadow, watching the academy students picking flowers for their ikebana. The Hyuuga girl was fiddling with dandelions, but absentmindedly - not from nervousness.

"Sakura-chan, you know I'm not brave enough," Hinata whimpered in response. "Besides... uh, it's just a crush. I'll get over it."

"Oh, really?" said Ino, with a grin that would have terrified her teammates.

"Yes! Please, don't tell anyone. Especially him. Um... I don't think I could stand it."

"What are you afraid of?" asked the pink-headed girl. "You have to be straightforeward. Naruto's so thickheaded, it'd take him years to figure it out on his own."

"I don't think he's quite that dumb, Sakura-chan," Hinata replied defensively. "Um, I think Naruto just shows off around you. To impress you."

"Haha, yeah! And it doesn't work. Does it bother you? I'd be angry." Sakura stared at the leaves of the birch they were sitting beneath and lapsed into a vision of Sasuke. "If HE were rubbing up against some hussy I'd teach him a lesson-"

"HEY! I don't like the way you worded that!" Ino snapped. "Sasuke would never do that, because he's got me!"

"Oh, yeah!"

"YEAH!"

"Prove it. Since when has he ever cared about you?" Sakura's evil little grin didn't quite beat Ino in the 'insane' department, but it was still ominous.

"Since he realized YOU were worthless!"

Hinata sighed. Her attempts to have the two other girls involved in normal, if childish, conversation had been crushed and doused in gasoline and lit on fire again, as it usually was. She wasn't the best at being social, but she'd have liked Sakura and Ino to be friends again. She liked people to be happy.

But it was nice, she guessed, that they were both so sure of their affection that they were able to fight about it. They liked Sasuke because he was cool and talented and ridiculously good-looking, and he had a bloodline trait.

She didn't like Naruto because he was any of those things. (Probably because he WASN'T any of those things.) He was awkward and goofy and embarrasing to be around and wore an orange jumpsuit, and inside him he had a thing that had killed more people than all the Uchiha clan had put together.

"Worthless! Who's worthless! I'm not the one who plays with FLOWERS all day and panics if she can't find her lip gloss!"

"Your petty insults can't touch me, Forehead." Ino crossed her arms. "I have a right to be proud of what I do."

"Your - your - AARGH!" Sakura did the same and turned her back on her ex-best friend.

"Um, you two... um, what if Sasuke doesn't like either of you?" Hinata ventured. She twirled a dandelion between her fingers. It looked like a small, greenish sun. "He doesn't really seem to care about... um, that, right now."

"He will," said Sakura in the tone of voice that added '-or else'.

"Really, if you think about what he's got available, I'm the only option he has. I succeed by a process of elimination." Ino knew it wasn't true; she was just trying to goad Sakura further.

"B-but that's not a good thing, is it?" Hinata wondered. She would be rather insulted, personally, if Naruto picked her because there was no one else.

"It's good enough for me! I'd still get to be with Sasuke-kun!" Ino seemed triumphant. Forehead was sulking.

"Oh." Hinata added a few more dandelions to her collection.

"You shouldn't bother with those weeds, you know," Sakura commented conversationally. "They're full of pollen. They give people allergies."

"He's not allergic," Hinata said automatically, and then blushed. "Um. I mean, I know."

"Who's not?" Sakura seemed genuinely curious. Hinata just shook her head vigourously.

"Nobody!"

Ino laughed.

"Sakura just hates anything that's not bright flaming pink. Besides, dandelions are very fortunate flowers. They signify happy unions and prosperous surroundings." Her voice had taken on that slightly hollow tone that meant she was reciting from memory. "In dreams, a dandelion surrounded by greenery is a sign of good luck."

"Really?" Hinata asked. She looked at the bright yellow heads. That sounded promising.

"Well, I guess so. I mean, they're just flowers. They don't really mean anything, people just think they do. Hey, class is over. You have to take your sister back home, right?"

"Yeah." Hinata stood up as Hanabi drew closer. The other kids were leaving in groups, hands stained green from their attempts at ikebana. She fingered her bouquet, but didn't drop it.

"Come on, sis," said Hanabi. She wiped her hands on her dress. "I'm sooo hungry..."

Hinata smiled and waved to the other girls as she headed off, followed by her petulant sibling. She tucked the dandelions into her pocket, careful not to damage them.

She left Hanabi at her house and made a slight detour. He wasn't in, for which she was grateful. She left them on the windowsill.

- - - - -

_Concrit will be loved and appreciated!_


	3. Story Three : Strangeness

_- - - - - Third Sunshine Story - - - - -_

_Title_ : On The Strangeness of Women

_Characters_ : Naruto, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kiba, Akamaru

_Length_ : 678 words.

_Rating_ : G, 'shut up' is said. You'd have to work to get offended.

- - - - -

Okay, so Sasuke and Kiba and Shikamaru and I were sitting around outside the soccer field talking for some reason, during the Chuunin exams. Kiba was kinda mad at me because I beat him in the preliminaries. What's his problem, any way? I mean, he's a cool guy, I guess, but he gets way too snappy and territorial. Oh well. If anyone in Konoha is supposed to be crazier than me, it'd be the Inzukas.

Where was I? Oh yeah! So we were sitting around and I was looking for my watch, cause it was broken and it fell out of my pocket earlier. I dunno why I bothered, I could just have gotten a new one, but I get attatched to stuff. Like my hat. Everyone makes fun of the hat, but I like it. It's funny and reminds me of a fish. It's as good a reason as any, right?

So Shikamaru asked Sasuke if he and Sakura were, y'know, involved. For Science! or something. I wasn't really paying attention much. It was kinda girly. Anyway, so Sasuke said "Why would you say that?" and I said "Yeah! Especially when there's better-looking guys like me around here!" and Sasuke said "Shut up, Naruto."

Shikamaru said, "I wouldn't have known that from the way you act. Sakura gets all weird and crazy and jealous about you."

Kiba said, "I get what you mean. At least Hinata doesn't get crazy."

Shikamaru said, "I wouldn't know."

Sasuke said, "Sakura is a level-headed girl. She can control herself most of the time."

I said, "No she can't, remember that one time I-"

Sasuke said, "That's you, Naruto. There's a difference."

"Do you think girls are built that way? Like, to be weird? My sister gets absolutely psycho if I get into her makeup. I mean, it wasn't even me, it was Akamaru, he hates strong smells, and she knows that but she still blames me for everything." Kiba rubbed his puppy's head. (Would that ever actually feel good? I mean, if someone rubs my hair, I get irritated. And then really static-y.)

"They're a bother," Shikamaru said. "All of them."

"Not all," I said, trying to be fair. "Er - er - like Kurenai-sensei, she's not that bad, is she?"

"Yes she is," said Kiba morosely. "She thinks we're hopeless and drinks too much. And she gives us teamwork-building exercises so she doesn't have to do anything."

Shikamaru grunted. I said, "Er."

"Hinata's normal, though," Kiba added. "So I guess you're right, Naruto. They're not all insane."

Sasuke had his chin resting on his hands again, bored. Shikamaru's eyes had strayed back up to the clouds.

"Normal? But she's always stuttering and blushing and doing that finger thing and looking away and stuff!" I argued.

"You really are an idiot, aren't you?" Sasuke said.

"Even I know, and I don't even care," Shikamaru said.

"Know what?" I asked. It's not fun to be left out of stuff. I mean, I had ten years of it, I speak from experience.

Kiba gave me a blank stare. "You seriously have no idea?"

"Idea? Er- is all that stuff supposed to be normal for Hinata?"

"She doesn't do it around me," said Shikamaru helpfully. Sasuke nodded.

Kiba sighed. "You know what, Naruto? If you can't figure it out by yourself, it's probably better for Hinata. She doesn't deserve anyone that dumb."

I was completely lost. Moreso than that time at the Academy where we were doing equations of a line and I fell asleep and handed in a page full of doodles of shuriken.

"Deserve? What did she do?"

Dog-boy grinned. "Nothing, nothing. You should ask her why she's that weird sometime, Naruto."

"We can watch. It'll be funny," Sasuke commented.

"I wouldn't bother. He won't do it," Shikamaru said.

"Will too! I don't get why, but I'll ask!" I stood up and pointed, just for effect. Side-effect of being short: use dramatic gestures!

Sasuke shook his head just a smide and laughed. Shikamaru smiled, tight-lipped. Akamaru barked, and I began to learn just how strange girls could be.

- - - - -

_Did you know how hard Naruto is to write? Argarghargh. foams at mouth_


	4. Story Four : Ishikishougai

_- - - - - Fourth Sunshine Story - - - - -_

_Title_ : Ishikishougai - Disturbance

_Characters_ : Naruto

_Length_ : 773 words.

_Rating_ : I'll go with PG, because it talks about crushes and fighting but it's not explicit.

- - - - -

It took him a while to name the emotion he felt when Hinata rubbed the fur on Akamaru's head, or when she said Kiba was being silly and blushed, or when she flicked a drop of juice onto Shino's sunglasses and denied her involvement, or when she clung to Neji's side and wouldn't meet anyone's eyes.

And, like all young boys with crushes, he told himself it was nothing. Something was growing inside him that he didn't like, and it reacted to girls in general (and he was suddenly realizing why Jiraiya told him some of the things he did and told him to stay out of the buildings he did), and that was all it was.

So he was sort of glad to leave and train for three years and think about her only in passing, using that warm fuzzy fondness that he thought about all his Konoha friends with. Sometimes after a hard round of taijutsu that always left him exhausted and his practice partners smug, he'd flop down on the grass and wonder how Lee did it. When he'd been faced with one of those damn word puzzles that were supposed to test his 'mental acuity', whatever that meant, he'd think of Shikamaru. When he'd been pumped all day and could FEEL the calories leaking off him in a very unpleasant way, he'd understood how Chouji could stand to eat all the time. His friends were a part of his life. He liked his friends.

But he didn't know quite how to place Hinata. She was a friend, although she didn't really feel like one. Not really. It wasn't the same thing he felt for Sakura, or for Ino on the rare times that he bickered at her. And it wasn't the same way he was friends with Tenten - as a part of a bigger group collectively labeled 'People I Like'. She ignited an ugly spark of protectiveness, a feeling that made him hate people he normally liked, just because she was near them.

And that bothered him.

And it bothered him that, when he was in one of the inns, he'd seen a girl about Hinata's height with short black hair and his heart had leapt painfully, and then fallen equally painfully when she looked around and had green eyes.

But hey! Jiraiya said that he was thirteen and that made you stupid. He'd grow out of it. He'd get better. Naruto had laughed it off with the fox-faced grin he always used, and was relieved when he hadn't dreamed that night.

And it bothered him that when he was angry at the world, after breaking up a gang or chasing down conmen or some other mundane but maddening assignment that the sennin liked to give him, he would punch walls and lean his head against it and think about Hinata and how she accepted everything just as it was, and ground his teeth and wanted to grab her and shake her and tell her that you can't be like that - you can't just let everything walk over you -

That was when he felt another strange disembodied feeling, aggressive protection directed at a girl he hadn't seen in a year and a half. That bothered him. Friendship wasn't supposed to make you mad or unhappy, it was supposed to make you feel like you belonged and accepted and stuff.

(But Sasuke, his mind whispered. What about Sasuke? He wanted to shake Sasuke every time he thought about him, too. Stupid boy. Idiot boy. My friend.)

He was too young to like girls. Girls were bad. They made you do stupid things. Besides, when he was fourteen, he realized that if he was going to be Hokage it was better not to have anyone like... that. They were an extra weakness that you couldn't afford during wartime. You might as well paint a target on their backs that said 'STAB HERE!'. He admitted that he liked her enough to not want that to happen. But that was all. He was her friend. She was his friend. That was how it was.

But in the back of his mind, something small and snide said that no, it wasn't quite that, was it? It's something different. Because you don't become that self-aware around Sakura. You don't bother trying to find out what makes Tsunade-sama tick (1). You don't start watching your words like that around Ino. You don't get that insane impulse to fight things that touch her when you're near Tenten.

That was what really bothered him.

- - - - -

(1) All right, so he'd found out that was sake and pachinko and memories.

- - - - -

_Whew. This has been sitting around for a while, but it finally got out. I hate writing Naruto, but it's a great challenge. Also, I'm sorry for the typos like whoa that I had in previous chapters – I need to proofread... And thank you for the reviews, they're really appreciated! Also: I got the title from an online dictionary (shame on me, I know), so it may not be accurate. If it isn't, I'm very sorry._


	5. Three Stories

_A/N: These are all drabbles which I felt were too short to make up whole chapters. Have fun. They don't necessarily have any continuity_. _Also, they're pretty old; I've given them a quick brush-up, so they are no longer true 100-word drabbles._

- - - - - _Fourth, Fifth, Sixth Sunshine Stories_ - - - - -

- - - - - **BLUE** - - - - -

Blue was her favourite colour, for a while.

It's the colour of the sky, both at night when the world is at peace and during the day when life (and chaos) returns.

It's the colour of water, which is as calm and peaceful as she wishes she could be. (She wishes she could be beautiful and perfect and untouchable. But it falters as soon as she sees him. She wants him to touch her.)

It's the colour of the flowers that grow along the Hyuuga courtyard in their neat wooden boxes. They've been there ever since she was born. She doesn't know the name, although she's sure Hanabi does because whatever she's not good at Hanabi makes certain _she_ is.

His eyes are not blue anymore.

- - - - -**RAIN **- - - - -

It was raining very heavily, and the sound soothed Hinata as she stood by the doors of the hospital. It made the air feel solid and grey and clammy and fresh. It was good to have solidity in your life, especially when your teammates lay half cut to pieces in their hospital beds.

A delivery truck moved off, leaving a slick of black on the pavement. Someone's stray cat darted beneath the bushes next to the parking lot. On the sidewalk, two schoolgirls walked by underneath a single yellow umbrella.

"Byakugan," she whispered, and watched outlines through the previously-impenetrable grey. Buildings and forests, far off in the distance, given a rain-halo.

"I hate the rain," he said from the lobby. "It always aims for me."

"It's because you wear bright orange, Naruto-kun," she smiled. "It's impossible to not see you."

- - - - -** WHISKERS** - - - - -

"Naruto-kun…"

"Huh? Hinata, what is it?"

It was after class, and most kids were still packing up their stuff. Sakura had fled as soon as the bell had rung, intent on catching Sasuke.

"U-um, I was wondering, why do you have those whiskers? Kiba-kun thinks they're marker."

"Whiskers? Oh, on my face! I've always had those, I guess. Ahahaha."

"Oh." She pushed her fingers together. "Well, they're, um… unusual..."

"Right. See you tomorrow! Bye!" He grabbed his notebook and left, dropping a pencil as he fled. She could swear he muttered "weird" as he left.

"…I think they're cute," Hinata added to the empty room.

- - - - -


End file.
